Elsewhere, the United boss accused previous club Everton of holding back the careers of Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines by refusing to sell them to his new employers.

The Toffees were angry at the "derisory and insulting" £28m joint bid for Fellaini and Baines made at the start of this week, as it fell well short of their valuation of the duo.

Moyes said he sympathised with his old club, but claimed he would probably have let the pair join United by now had he still been in charge.

"I know that if I'd been Everton manager and Sir Alex [Ferguson] had come asking for Leighton Baines and Marouane Fellaini, I'd have found it very difficult to keep them," said Moyes. "Because I always felt the right thing to do was what was right for the players.